Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 98992 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 495(@200wpm)___ 396(@250wpm)___ 330(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98992 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 495(@200wpm)___ 396(@250wpm)___ 330(@300wpm)
An almost sympathetic look crosses her face. “Did he ever acknowledge what he did? Apologize for it?”
“I missed school for a few days. Rumors ran wild with how I got hurt and so gifts kind of just flooded in. Carmen brought by some from people at school. Some were just delivered. He sent me some roses. A card. A stuffed animal. Candy. All of them came from an alias just in case my parents opened something or were reading over my shoulder.”
“What name did he use?”
“Eddie Lewis.”
“As in Edward Lewis from Pretty Woman?”
“That’d be the one.”
“Ohmygod, darling, that makes me swoon and gag all at once.”
A light laugh escapes as I brush away the tears.
“Why the worry with your parents invading your privacy?”
“At some point, the police decided to rule out robbery, and put it in their heads that maybe I had a stalker. According to them, I was a pretty girl. I was popular. It wasn’t unheard of to have Swimfan and Fear movie scenarios play out in real life. As a result of this theory, they opened some of my stuff looking for death threats or clues. I politely suggested changing my phone number to help the situation.”
“To separate yourself from Ryder.”
“Yeah.” I wipe away the latest tears. “I knew any time he called, I would come running, so if he couldn’t reach me, I couldn’t go. I didn’t have the willpower to say no to him. I mean, he’s my other half, ya know?”
“You mean was,” Katherine promptly corrects.
My eyes shut tightly while more tears arrive.
I’m not sure that I do.
I’ve been teeming with a mixture of so many emotions since these sessions started, but one has always been steady.
One has always been as reliable as the compass rose that represented our relationship.
The love I have for Ryder Collins may be dormant, but it is by no means dead.
Just lost.
And knowing that, believing that, how can I spend the rest of my life with anyone else when I know they’ll never have all of me?
Chapter 11
Ryder
-“Letting you walk away was the hardest thing I've ever done.”-
--
Staring at Presley from across the room, I openly admire how beautiful she looks.
Last year, when we went to prom together, she wore this classic black dress. It wasn’t too tight or too attention seeking but was one of those sexy because it’s subtle things. And it worked. It kept my focus without any effort. I was obsessed with the way her tits were playing peekaboo and how it framed her ass that she brushed against me while we danced. It was a French theme – didn’t care for it –, but she loved the murals that were put up around the Frost Luxury Hotel event room. We danced like we were the only two people on the entire planet in a room filled with Christmas lights to shitty pop music before grabbing breakfast at a little local diner. The end of the night we crashed at Carmen’s in “our room”. We fooled around. Cuddled. Fooled around again until we were too exhausted to stay awake anymore. She fell asleep first, and I remember it felt different for some reason. I remember something inside told me that at some point we would do this every night for the rest of our lives. Something told me we would begin and end our days together, always. It was a really good night…I wasn’t wasted or in the process of it. I wasn’t baked or coming down from anything else. At that point, the only high I wanted or even needed in my life was her.
Pres tosses her head back in laughter, the dangling strands around her face bouncing around like they were invited to dance.
This year she looks nothing like last year.
Sure, she’s still got on the glasses I love – doubt those will ever go anywhere –, and the glow that makes her her, but subtlety is not what she’s offering.
No.
In that skintight, backless gold dress with a plunging neckline right between her tits, the only thing she’s selling isn’t even for sale.
Or at least it better not fucking be.
“You’re staring, Collins,” Ivo casually informs while adjusting the dainty model in his lap. “Hard.”
“Yeah,” I quietly respond, “I know.”
Dennis, an acquaintance as well as Morgan’s date tries to pull my attention away from Presley with an annoying tap on the arm. He fails. Miserably. “Your girl is gonna notice, bro.”
My eyes flicker across the table to Bambi who is giggling with Morgan. The way their faces are leaned towards each other indicates they’re conspiring. They’re already tipsy, horny, and high, so the guesses of what the whispers are about are few.
And despite how much they love when they get me both at once, I’m not really in the mood to fuck.
Either of them.
“We’re gonna go downstairs, babe.” Bambi wiggles her eyebrows my direction. “Wanna come?”